You may remember that I had a half dozen romance novels loaded on my Sony Reader for our Christmas vacation, but that only one of them turned out to be worth reading. That one was by Kathleen O'Reilly, and it was Sex Straight Up, which is such a terrible title that I wouldn't have given it a second glance except that it was part of one of those "Blogger Bundles" where you get four or five romance novels for a reduced price. I also would never in a million years have picked it up in the bookstore, because it's a Harlequin, and those are shelved in a different part of my local bookstore that it never occurs to me to visit.
But in spite of its cheesy title, and cheesy cover, and its being a Harlequin, it was an entertaining read, with a believable set of characters and a believable set of problems and (thank you, goddess of romance novels) a believable ending. The story is of Catherine, who is spending a weekend alone at her family's beach house, and Daniel O'Sullivan, a widower who has been trapped into a weekend of (supposed) fun and sex with a bunch of singles who have rented the house next door. Daniel's wife died on 9/11, and he is so miserable without her that he has never stopped wearing his wedding ring and has no plans to ever love again-- he is at the beach house because his brothers pressured him into it. Daniel and Catherine end up spending a steamy weekend together, but neither of them plans to ever see the other again. However, when anomalies show up in the books at Catherine's family's auction house and her grandfather is blamed, Daniel just happens to be the accountant who is brought in to figure out what is going on. It's not the best romance novel I've ever read, but it was believable and intelligent and I was happy to have a new author to read.
Especially happy since most of her books are available for $3.60-ish for Kindle, so I've been downloading them every week or two when I need something quick and fun to read. Daniel and Catherine are the middle story of a trilogy of the three O'Sullivan brothers, who jointly own a bar (hence the cheesy Sex Straight Up title, for which I still haven't quite forgiven her). The bar is a hobby for Daniel and Sean, but full-time for Gabe, who gets the first story, Shaken and Stirred (Sean's is the third, Nightcap). Again, neither of them is going to win a prize, but O'Reilly has a knack for creating strong, strong characters who have to really duke it out (metaphorically speaking) to figure out how to be together.
Then there's Long Summer Nights, about a journalist fighting for her job who uncovers a famous author hiding out in the hinterlands while she's looking for a different (less interesting) story; Hot Under Pressure about a woman who hates to fly but ends up sitting next to Mr. Gorgeous on one of her flights; and Beyond Breathless, which I just finished, which is about two financial wizard-types who share a limo during a power outage and have an "oops" fling, and then realize they can't live without each other.
I'd recommend them all, if you're just looking for something fun to read. But they're not-- quite-- something. I don't know enough about writing a book to know what it is. Does she need a better editor? different beta-readers? I can't figure it out. And it's not the same problem in every book. Long Summer Nights had such a lame beginning that if I hadn't already read several of hers, I would have put it down after the first 30 pages. But then it ended up being absorbing and believable. Beyond Breathless, the one I just finished, was pretty dang good until the last ten pages, when she seemed to just get tired of writing it and shut it down. There are two more books in the "Beyond" series, so maybe she was trying to save up some of the plot points for later books, but still-- it was an unsatisfying end to what had been a good read. And all of them feel rushed, as if you're reading the first or second draft instead of the final version.
So, bottom line-- They've all been above average, and Sex Straight Up and Nightcap are well above average. Recommended. I'm looking forward to reading more.
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